Toro, 6" x 50 ring gauge, $7.50Don Gonzalez is one of the more recent brands in the cigar industry; in fact, there are not available nationally yet. They started in Florida in 2007 and from my understanding they maintain a strong foothold there. They also have a strong presence in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area and company president, Pedro Gonzalez, has appeared on the Blowin' Smoke podcast a couple times. I was excited to hear they were expanding to my area and in early December I got to meet Pedro Gonzalez at my local B&M; Burns Tobacconist is, I believe, the first store in Tennessee to offer Don Gonzalez cigars. Pedro was a very friendly host and very eager to talk cigars. I smoked a Corojo there at the shop that night and brought home one each of the 3 wrapper varieties available in the Special Edition line. Today's review will be for the mildest: the Connecticut. DG Special Edition cigars are all made in Esteli, Nicaragua and feature Nicaraguan filler and binder. One source that I looked up states that all wrappers are Nicaraguan as well, but I cannot say that for sure--if this is a Nicaraguan wrapper, it is a Connecticut-see, shade-grown Nicaraguan wrapper.
The wrapper leaf of this stick was a beautiful gold color, although there was some brownish mottling in places and one area seemed to have a deeper greenish tinge to it. It was smooth and fairly oily feeling. The cap line was very smooth, too, although not nearly invisible. The aroma from the body was very nice and hay-like, while from the foot there was a strong chocolate aroma--very sweet. The prelight draw was excellent and I picked up flavors of hay, creamy coffee and caramel. After a few cold draws there was just the slightest hint of spice on the lips.
Initial puffs featured those creamy coffee notes from prelight, along with a stronger dose of black pepper than I expected this early in a stick like this. The rest of the first third featured hay and coffee flavors with a constant undercurrent of pepper spice. So far, this was turning out to be a very nice flavor profile for a Connecticut-wrapped mild cigar--actually it was turning out more mild-to-medium if truth be told.
When I removed the smaller of the two bands, there was so much excess glue that a hole was ripped in the wrapper. This did not appear to be a big problem at first, but a few minutes later a split appeared to be pushing out from the hole. The flavors were still very good, though; some coffee notes and a buildup of the spice were what I noticed most, along with a little nuttiness. The larger band made a much larger hole in the wrapper when I removed it, and proceeded to connect to the smaller hole through the split that had developed from the smaller one. Very frustrating.
Admirably, however, all the damage done to the wrapper by the overuse of glue did not cause any significant burn problems. The cigar actually burned right through the problem areas without issue. The flavors in the final third became a little fuller as the stick burned hotter and I tasted more roasted nuts and a deeper coffee flavor. Overall, I would call this a very nice stick that does not disappoint as a potential morning cigar. It did not have a wide variety of flavors or a huge amount of complexity, but what I did taste was very pleasant. This is definitely a cigar to try if you can find them in your area.
Body: 3/10
Strength: 7/10
Complexity: 6/10
AFP Scale:
Preligth: 1.5/2
Construction: 1.5/2
Flavor: 4.5/5
Value: 1/1
Total: 8.5/10
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